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Saturday, November 26, 2011

This week was spent getting ready for Thanksgiving and finishing up my project for Celebrate Color. I have been really wanting to make a plus quilt and a fall runner for our table, they ended up being the perfect combination.

I just love the way the fabrics came together!! Really I am obsessed with looking at this. I began by pulling fabrics from my stash with the fall colors I had in mind and then tried to balance the patterns. After I had picked my patterned fabric I chose a few solids and started cutting. After I laid out all the pluses I decided to add the Kaffe Fassett circles and gray Heath.

I chose the Aviary 2 Woodgrain for the binding and I like how the pattern goes around the corners. I love how this turned out and I am definitely going to be doing more with plus quilts.

Here is a little bit of the Willamette Valley which has beautiful fall colors right now. Yesterday we didn't do black Friday we did what I dubbed Red Friday. We headed out to the vineyards for wine tastings. Every year the wineries have special tastings the 25th and 26th and it's a great tradition. These were all taken with my iPhone but I think they turned out pretty well. Oregon is such a beautiful place!

Be sure to head over to Celebrate Color and see all the inspiration they have to share.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We did and I am so thankful for my family, friends, and quilting!

Friday, November 18, 2011

It's been awhile and I've missed Our Creative Spaces I am so happy to be back. Today was the last day of school for my kids before the Thanksgiving break so I dedicated the day to sewing! I have a few little projects I am working on but today was mostly about starting my son's quilt!! I usually start a quilt with a sketch. This time I came up with a rough sketch and then showed my son. He gave some input which included adding a Minecraft pig. Actually at first he wanted the whole quilt to be a Minecraft character but as we talked about ideas he decided just a pig somewhere in the quilt would be nice. What is Minecraft? A computer game my children are obsessed with but it's at least a very creative world building game just with a few monsters thrown in if you want them.

My first sketch with Avery's Minecraft characters in order of preference.

My second sketch.

My sketches are just a starting point and things change as I am putting blocks on the design wall but they help me to have a vision of the quilt.

I also received my charms in the mail today from the Gen X Japanese Import Swap!

I am excited to do something with them. There are so many fabrics I've drooled over in the group!

Don't miss Our Creative Spaces this week. It looks like some of us are starting to get ready for the holidays.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Kristin fromMaine Momma wrote a wonderful post today at Shutter Sisters which inspired this post. It's about wishes and after reading the post I thought about what wish I would make and knew right away. I have a reason to wish today because it's actually one of the days you get a wish, my birthday, but the post is really about wishing whenever wherever you want. That's the idea I like, to wish for big things and small to put those happy positive thoughts out on a day when you need it not just a birthday. The post is also about taking a picture of yourself wishing try it it's fun. If you feel like sharing you can at Shutter Sisters or just go over to read Kristin's beautiful post.I made my wish and it's a good one I'll let you know if it comes true. Pétra

Monday, November 14, 2011

I've read a few posts on WIP's that go on and on and I have one too. It's a little sweater that got me but it's done!!

My knitting adventures actually started 11 years ago and took me to a business making knitting needle holders. My love of fabric took over and knitting has taken a back seat.This sweater began when I fell in love with the Prism Bubbles yarn. It is so cute but a little tricky to get the hang of knitting with and then my dog got a hold of the knitting, played with it for awhile, and I was left with a big mess. After spending a long time untangling it I was ready to move on but my pattern was missing. I finally (6 months later) went back to the store and they printed a new one for me. The knitting itself was easy and everything came together quickly until I was supposed to crochet the button holes. I was going to have my sister-in-law help me but then saw there would be some crochet/knitting groups going on at the Sewing Summit. With the help of Suzy who tried to teach me to crochet and eventually took pity on me finishing it for me the sweater is done! Luckily for me if I had finished it last year it would have been too big for my little niece so the whole thing worked out just right. Maybe I'll start a new knitting project that doesn't take a year and a half to finish!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Thank you to Amy for coming up with this fun Mini Quilt party. Be sure to head on over and enter or just see all the wonderful mini quilts!

First I'd like to share the mini quilt I made for the Post Summit Swap. My partner likes pinks, greens, and bright colors so I jumped at the chance to use my Michael Miller Spa line mixed in with some other favorites.

I started this quilt with the idea of doing a double disappearing 9 patch but I didn't feel it was as successful not using solids so I started slicing things up and moving everything around. That's the fun thing about a mini if you mess up you're not in jeopardy of ruining too much fabric. I love the Spa Scallop as binding how it creates curved stripes. I am hoping my partner likes it along with the pouch and chocolate I sent but I am still waiting to hear.

During the studio clean up earlier in the week I used my design wall to keep my minis out of the way and realized I had a nice little collection forming. Some from swaps some from giveaways.

Starting on the top right and moving clockwise

Sun quilt by Teje that I won on her blog Birthday. She's joining in the mini party as well. Hi Teje!

Improv block by me turned into pillow by Claire for a swap. Yes a pillow is a mini quilt just ask Amanda!

The beautiful mini quilt I received from the Post Summit Swap by Rachel Mardis.

Finally I think my favorite mini, which I now have to wait a whole year to put out again, my Ghastlies table runner. Maybe it's a table rectangle I'm not sure if it's long enough to be considered a runner it might just end up on the wall next Halloween we'll see.

Thanks for checking out my minis and thank you again to Amy for bringing us all together!

Thursday, November 10, 2011

I received my email for Delish Magazines new issue the other day. Have you seen it? I hadn't heard of them until the Sewing Summit. They were at the Summit to spread the word about their online magazine and do an article. I looked at it today and I will definitely be a follower. The magazine has so much to offer including a great article about the Sewing Summit so check it out. The article led to thinking about the Sewing Summit and the bag I made and didn't really share.

photo from Jenn Bailey via flickr

I love how it turned out and I toted it around all weekend. It's actually comprised of 4 different Echino prints and this amazing coated linen I found at Fabric Depot.

photo by Jenn Bailey via flickr

You can see there was no shortage of cool bags at the Summit. This is Jill next to me I love her fabric combo on her 241 tote. I blogged about my 241 totehere.

I made the bag by copying an old favorite I have. This is the coated linen bottom.

First zipper I've done this way

I had to add a pocket for the phone!

That should be it on the Sewing Summit for awhile. I can't wait until next year!

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

My studio has been neglected again. Starting with Sewing Summit, project after project, and Halloween there has been no time to straighten. It looked like a family of raccoons had a party while I was away last weekend. So I rolled up my sleeves and have spent the past two days getting it into shape.

Blarg!

With the addition of a lot of new fabric from the Sewing Summit it was time to take my piles of fabric and put them in containers. It's so much better!

I also moved my cutting table out for easier cutting access. It takes up more space in the room but will be more efficient.

It's so nice seeing this when I walk into the room! Now I am ready to tackle Christmas, swaps and a quilt for my son! Friday I'm joining in a fun mini-quilt sew and tell with Amy of AmyLouWho there will be prizes and a link up so stop by Friday and join in the fun.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Welcome everyone from the Ghastlie blog hop thanks for dropping in. This was a very busy Halloween but I did catch the Ghastlie flu and had to make something with my fabric. I wanted to make a runner for our table.

I started with this

and ended with this.

I love my Ghastlie crew and it might even turn into a wall hanging next year.

I FMQ a spider web design.

I love the dagmar plaid with the Ghastlies

If you love the Ghastlies there is plenty more to see here at Madame Samm's!

We had a very busy Halloween weekend with 5 parties in three days needless to say I was pretty tired by Monday but we had fun Trick or Treating. The kids were a Vampire and Scary Guy this year.

She doesn't make a very scary Vampire but she is a cute one. I am trying to figure out how to convince her to be Prudence (at left) for Halloween next year but she said "Then I have to carry a hammer around all night!" She does have a point but wouldn't it be Ghastlie!!

My husband and I were Lisa Loopner and Todd from old Saturday Night Live days for our Saturday Night Live themed party.

My husband does a great Bill Murray and I perfected saying Todd in a very nasally voice all night long.

I am so happy to be participating in the Bloggers' Quilt Festival for the first time! I went around and around about what quilt to post and finally decided to post something a little older from back in the days when I wasn't part of this great blogging community I was blogging in a vacuum. I chose the All Lined Up Quilt, pattern by Malka Dubrawsky. This was the 8th quilt I had ever made back in August of 2010.

This was one of the most challenging quilts I'd made partially due to some confusion with the pattern but it is still one of my favorites! I really love Malka's work and I am so excited to use her new fabric line coming out.

All of the stripes are pieced solids which was the bulk of the work for this quilt. The blocks are created using a log cabin technique but it's the random feel the quilt has that I love. The quilting was supposed to be on the seams but I opted for loose random lines that sometimes changed direction. I also quilted with a bright pink which looks really good with all the colors and Malka used a turquoise which I did in pincushion below. I have used the scrap strips, which I still have a lot of, so many times in the past year I think I will always keep some on hand for random projects.